Michael Peck wrote about some of the touchier geopolitics of naming warships:

• Canada recently revealed the HMCS Queenston and HMCS Chateauguay. The battles of Queenston Heights and Chateauguay were cases of humiliating defeats of American troops by Canadian forces.
• America, too, has a rich tradition of naming ships after battles in which they defeated contemporary allies.
• British soldiers, for example, have to conduct joint exercises alongside the USS Bunker Hill, USS Cowpens, and the USS Lake Champlain.
• The Japanese must tolerate the American USS Iwo Jima and USS Leyte Gulf.
• Even America’s domestic enemies have to deal with the USS Gettysburg and USS Vicksburg.
• But it’s not just North America. Britain gleefully launched the submarine HMS Trafalgar not too far from French shores.
• The only nations that can’t seem to engage in the practice are defeated Axis Powers. There are, for example, no Japanese warships named after Pearl Harbor.

Read more examples of sensitive warship names over here.

Source: Foreign Policy